First Date
The East Harlem bar is low lit. The Knicks game hums on the TV while Trey and Will sit at the bar nursing drinks, laughing with the familiarity of childhood friends.
Trey rolls the ice in his glass and motions to the bartender for a refill.
“So?” Will asks with a knowing smile.
Trey shrugs. “Date was whack.”
“Apps are traps.”
“Nigga you think everything with a scroll is a trap.”
“What was wrong with her?”
Trey stares at the game. Brunson hits a three.
“She ordered… a lot.”
“Cheap ass whining bout some chick ordering on a date?”
“It wasn’t the amount… Something was off.”
“Off how?”
Trey rubs his temple and laughs under his breath.
“First off she was forty minutes late.”
“Forty?” Will nearly spills his drink. “Nigga the game was on!”
“I almost left. But I had my sketchbook so I was chillin’, drawing.”
“You nicer than me.”
“I’m sitting there, right… finally she walks in. No apology, no nothing. Just drops her bag on the chair, sits down…”
Trey pauses, remembering.
“And before we even really start talking…”
Will leans forward.
“What?”
Trey looks at him.
“She starts ordering.”
Will squints.
“Like… ordering what?”
Trey shrugs. “Everything.”
Will laughs. “Nah.”
“I’m serious.”
“Appetizers?”
“Yeah.”
“That ain’t crazy.”
Trey shakes his head slowly.
“Nah Will… you don’t understand.”
He swirls the ice in his glass again.
“It wasn’t just that she ordered food.”
A beat.
“It was the way she was doing it.”
Will leans closer across the bar.
“Alright then… what happened?”
Trey exhales and stares at the Knicks game for a moment before answering.
“She sat down… didn’t even look at me… waiter walks up…”
—
A few tables scattered around the room. Quiet enough to hear dishes clinking in the kitchen.
Shelley sits down across from Trey, already sliding her coat off.
“I’ll get the edamame appetizer and two rieslings.”
The waiter starts writing.
Trey glances up from the menu.
“I don’t drink riesling. I’ll take a sake.”
The waiter scratches out the line.
Shelley doesn’t look up from the menu.
“Actually keep the two rieslings. I’ll just drink both.”
The waiter pauses, then writes again.
Shelley sets the menu down, checks her phone, then finally looks up at Trey like she’s just noticed him sitting there.
“I’m Shelley.”
“I’m Trey.”
The waiter looks between them.
“Is that everything for now?”
“Yeah I think we’re goo—”
“I’ll take some extra soy sauce.”
She flips the menu over again, scanning.
Trey and the waiter both watch her.
A moment passes.
She finally puts the menu down and looks at Trey again, expressionless.
Trey glances at the waiter and nods.
The waiter walks away.
For a second the table is quiet except for the sound of the Knicks highlights playing softly on the bar TV near the kitchen.
“So what do you do?”
“I lead an engineering team.”
She squints.
“Engineering? You build bridges?”
“No, software. I lead a team of programmers.”
The waiter returns with the rieslings and sake. Shelley picks up the menu again.
“I’ll take the spicy Tonkotsu with the shrimp tempura topping.”
The waiter looks up from his pad.
“We don’t have shrimp tempura topping.”
She starts flipping the pages. “I saw shrimp tempura on the menu.”
“We do have shrimp tempura - you want that?”
She sighs.
“You just told me you didn’t have it.”
“We have shrimp tempura appetizer, but not topping.”
She looks exasperated at Trey.
“Am I not being clear? Why isn’t he understanding me?” Ignoring the waiter.
“He’s saying that there’s a shrimp tempura appetizer, like a complete order. They don’t do toppings.”
“Why didn’t he just say that in the beginning? I’ll take that.”
The waiter writes the order down.
“And you sir?”
“I’ll take the veggie ramen.” He hands the menu to the waiter.
The waiter puts his hand out for Shelley’s menu.
“I’ll hold onto mine.” She says without looking up.
The waiter leaves.
“So, what do you do?”
She looks up. Takes a deep sip of riesling.
“I’m in between jobs right now.”
“What were you doing before?”
The waiter arrives with the edamame. He sets down the plates. Two small dishes, pours soy sauce in them.
“I’ll take one more riesling” she says, as she finishes off the first.
The waiter writes down her order. He looks to Trey, he shakes his head.
Shelley pops an edamame into her mouth.
“Do they feed you?”
“Feed me?”
“At your job? Is it one of those companies like Google?” She finishes the pod, wipes her hands and then returns to her riesling.
“Yes and no. They do feed us, but it’s not as fancy as Google.” She traces the rim of her glass with her fingertip.
“That’s still really convenient. You don’t have to cook, or go outside.”
“Yeah it’s chill. I like the company and my team is fun.”
Pause.
—
“She ain’t got no job?! No wonder she’s so hungry.”
Trey leans forward.
“Nah man that’s the thing.”
“She barely touched her food.”
Will frowns.
“What you mean?”
“Remember the shrimp she made a big deal about?”
“Yeah.”
“Nigga she didn’t even touch it. Not even a nibble.”
Will screws his face up.
“And your dumb ass didn’t say anything?”
Trey shrugs.
“I was shocked.” He scratches the back of his neck. “But that’s not even the craziest thing… I…”
Will leans in.
“You what?”
—
The table is decorated with two bowls of steaming ramen, a plate of shrimp tempura, full, appetizer bowl of untouched edamame. The menu is leaned up against the wall on Shelley’s side of the table. She is sipping her 4th riesling and twirling her braid.
Trey takes a bite out of his ramen.
“Are you close to your sister?”
Her eyes return from scanning the bar.
“I used to be.” Pulls braid behind ear. “But lately I’ve noticed my family’s effect on my nervous system. At some point I had to be like, ‘That’s enough. I can’t give you my energy.’ You know?”
“Family can be tough.” She nods and her eyes start to go back towards the bar. “Sounds like you’ve set some healthy boundaries.”
Her eyes stay on the bar.
A beat.
“What was that?”
“Sounds like you’ve set some healthy boundaries.”
“Yeah. What about you? Do you have any siblings?”
“I’ve got an older brother and a younger sis-”
Motioning towards the waiter “Excuse me.”
The waiter walks over.
“Yes?”
Flipping to the page of the menu “Can I get an order of the pork gyoza?”
The waiter looks at the table, her ramen, edamame, shrimp tempura all mostly untouched.
A moment passes.
“With extra sauce please.”
He looks to Trey, Trey nods.
The waiter writes the order down and leaves.
She returns to the conversation “You have two brothers?”
—
“Nigga she ordered another appetizer? After the main? And you was missin the game for this shit? You a bitch forreal.”
Trey shrugs. “Son, I told you. She was coming in hot with them orders.”
“Please tell me she at least took the shit home.”
Trey shakes his head.
“Nah.”
Will stares at him.
“She didn’t take none of it?”
Trey sighs.
“That’s the next part…”
—
The waiter arrives with another riesling and the gyoza. Trey’s ramen bowl has been cleared away. He reaches for the untouched edamame.
Looking at Trey. “Do you want to take this home?”
“No.” she replies.
The waiter glances at Shelley, then leaves.
“Morehouse was a decent school - I didn’t really get into the social scene. It wasn’t my speed.”
“Yeah you don’t seem like you went to Morehouse.”
Trey smirks, and then scans the plates on the table.
“What do you mean?”
“Well you aren’t full of yourself for starters. I used to date a guy who went to Morehouse and he talked about himself a lot.”
“Oh yeah, how’d that go?”
“Things got weird.”
“Weird how?”
“He started saying no to stuff.”
Trey looks at her. “Like what?”
“Little things at first. Dinner. Trips. Stuff we used to do.”
She dips a dumpling into the sauce and places it back on the plate.
“In the beginning he liked doing things for me. That kind of energy.”
“And then?”
“Then everything was a conversation.”
Trey bites into the shrimp tempura. It’s cold.
The waiter returns to the table.
“Kitchen’s closing in thirty minutes. Anything else?”
“No I think we’re goo-“
“I’ll take one more riesling and a tiramisu.”
The waiter looks at Trey.
Trey nods.
The waiter writes it down and leaves.
“So you broke up?”
“Was there really any other choice? If someone cares about you they support you right?”
—
“So when he started saying no… that’s when it ended?”
Trey stares at his drink.
“Yo.”
Will looks over. “What?”
Trey shakes his head slowly.
“She never gave the menu back.”